


accept the help

by bonrin



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Food as a Metaphor for Love, Fujoshis Don't Touch, Kinda?, M/M, Pining, Sickfic, Snowed In, except its really subtle, migraines, somewhat :eyes:
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 20:52:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17649662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bonrin/pseuds/bonrin
Summary: Bon was unfortunate enough to know what chronic migraines felt like.Rin decides to take care of him when he gets one on a snowy winter evening.





	accept the help

**Author's Note:**

> somehow this became 2.7k while editing but hey! for once its not an extremely subtle songfic. i feel like bon might be a tad ooc but who cares

Migraines were the worst.

Ryuuji had them regularly but inconsistently, and he could deal with them when they were simple headaches, but some days they were bad enough that he’d keep himself locked in his dorm with the curtains closed in complete darkness, a cup of chamomile or matcha tea on his desk, and a cold head compress on his forehead while he lay on his bed, either napping or silently chanting mantras the best he could to distract himself.

But sometimes he  _ couldn’t _ do that and he’d be stuck doing whatever he had to do that day. Luckily Lewin would let him rest if that’s where he was that day, but if he had class or a mission he’d be stuck with it and it fucking  _ sucked. _

He was used to it.

Today was a “both” kind of day.

Due to unforeseen circumstances (AKA a light snowstorm) he was stuck at Rin’s dorm. He’d already felt a small headache when he woke up that morning and it’d just evolved into a migraine during the day. They were hanging out in Rin’s room and Rin was on his bed messing with a fidget cube, while Ryuuji was sitting at the desk, using his phone on low brightness. He stood up and put his phone in the back pocket of his jeans and started rubbing at his temples, shutting his eyes closed.

“Hey, can you move over a little?” Ryuuji asked, hovering over the bed. Rin made a little ‘mhm’ noise without looking up from what he was ‘busy’ with and bounced a few feet over on the bed. Ryuuji flopped onto the free space face down and groaned into the mattress. His legs were slightly dangling off the bed due to his height.

“You okay, man?” The younger teen asked in turn, turning his head to look back at his friend.

“Mmh, ‘s a migraine,” Ryuuji mumbled back.

“A  _ migraine? _ ” Rin emphasized and put the fidget cube into his hoodie pocket. “You know what, stay here. I’ll be right back,” he got up and walked out of the room to only who knows where.

“Whh-” Ryuuji muttered and lifted his head up a little, his vision slightly blurry due to his closed eyelids being pressed against the sheets a second before. “Okum- nevermind,” he slurred in his painfully tired state and flopped his face back onto the bed.

Rin came back into the room a few minutes later stirring cinnamon tea in a mug. “Suguro,” he said softly. “I know chamomile and green tea help with migraines but it's been a while since Yukio's had a migraine himself so we haven't bought any, so I made you cinnamon instead.”

Ryuuji lifted his head up and once he opened his eyes his head went back down and he groaned. “Can you, uh, turn the light off?” he asked.

“Ah, shit! Yeah, sure,” Rin winced and he put the tea mug on his desk. He went over to the door and flicked the switch, then he walked back to the bed and settled himself where he was before. “So what else helps you with migraines? I know you’ve talked about them before but not much about what you do to alleviate them…”

“I appreciate the kindness, but-” Ryuuji lifted his head and sat up, feeling relieved when he didn’t have to shut his eyes back closed, “-where did this come from? I probably could’ve taken care of it myself.”

“Aw, c’mon man, they’re chronic right? No way you’re able to do that by yourself. You always take care of everyone else, and yeah, you take care of yourself, but accept the help from others!” Rin looked at Ryuuji with a smile and kicked the air, pointing his thumb towards himself. “If you’re stuck with me, you get help from me!”

Ryuuji blinked. “I mean- a-alright,” he stammered, flushing, and rubbed his temples again. “Thanks.”

Rin chuckles. “No biggie! So, what is it that you do?”

The older teen scoots back and lays his back against the wall. “Usually when I get migraines I just lay in bed in the dark either sleeping or chanting mantras. Whenever I can’t do that I just try my best to eat a lot of protein and drink water,” he explains.

“Protein… man, I’d go make you sukiyaki or something but I don’t have all the ingredients right now.”

“You got any oranges? Those help with migraines too.”

“Yeah! One sec,” Rin gets up and runs to the kitchen and almost slips since he’s wearing fuzzy socks. He quickly comes back with an orange and starts peeling it.

“Give it, I can peel it myself.”

“No you can’t, you don’t have nails.”

Ryuuji looks at his hands. He  _ did _ bite his nails often.

“...Alright then.”

“I still wish I could cook you something, though,” Rin seemed a little frustrated as he peeled the orange, but his behavior not directed towards the orange itself. Suddenly his eyes lit up. “Hey, wait! I can go out and buy a pepperoni and sausage pizza and get ingredients for sukiyaki too! I haven’t eaten dinner myself, either…”

“In  _ this _ weather? Are you crazy? You really are Satan,” Ryuuji said sarcastically, running a hand through his shaved hair, which he wasn’t completely used to yet.

“HEY!! You’re still on with that?! It’s been months!” Rin yelled. “And I’m serious! The snow’s been calming down! I could totally go, it won’t take me long!” he finished peeling the orange and gave it to Ryuuji. He got up and threw away the peel in the bin by the door, and then walked over to the closet in the room and began to put on winter gear.

“Wait, you’re  _ serious? _ ” Ryuuji asked as he pulled apart a piece of orange and put it in his mouth.

Rin pulled on a pair of gloves. “Yeah! You can go ahead and make yourself at home, and just call me if you need anything! I won’t be long!”

Soon enough Rin ran out the door and Ryuuji was left alone in the dorm.

“Idiot…” Ryuuji mumbled. He felt himself about to doze off again, so he finished eating the orange and lay on Rin’s bed, quickly falling asleep.

 

* * *

 

 

As Rin walked downtown he was glad the snow had calmed down and it wasn’t super cold. He would’ve used his flames to  _ try _ to warm himself up at the least, but it wouldn’t have done the job anyway, since that wasn’t how they worked.

The door made a little jingle noise as he walked into the pizza shop. The head of the seemingly tired employee at the counter lifted up a bit hearing the sound.

“Hi, welcome to True Cross Pizza, what can I get for you,” they mumbled out.

“Yeah, can I get uhh, a large sausage and pepperoni pizza?” Rin asked, rubbing his gloved hands together and rocking back and forth slightly.

The employee put the order down on the monitor. “Will that be it?”

Rin nodded. “Yep.”

“That'll be ¥1,500.”

Rin took the money out of his jacket pocket and put it on the counter.

“It'll be ready in around half an hour,” the employee stated.

“Alright, thanks.”

 

* * *

 

As Ryuuji opened his eyes, he realized his head wasn't throbbing as much as it’d been earlier, yet it still hurt. He took his phone out of his pocket and he turned it on to check the time, thankful that he'd turned the brightness down the last time he used it today.

9:16. He'd only been sleeping for around 20 minutes.

Then he looked over at the open door and realized the light in the hallway had been turned off.  _ When did that happen? _

He got up slowly as best as he could so his head wouldn't pulse even more and walked over to the door. He looked left and right and all the lights that had been on earlier were now off. He stepped back into the room and flicked the light switch on, his hand over his eyes similar to a baseball cap.

Nothing.

_ Huh. _

He grabbed his phone from the bed and dialed Rin. It only took a couple of rings for him to pick up the call.

_ “Hey, Suguro. What’s up?” _

“Woke up ‘n’ the lights went out,” Ryuuji mumbled through the phone and flicked the light switch back down, and walked over to the desk and picked up the mug full of cinnamon tea, which had went cold. He put the phone to his ear and leaned his head on his shoulder so it wouldn’t fall. “Really don’t mind, though… but I thought it’d be important to tell since this is your dorm, after all.”

_ “Oh, thanks! The pizza’s gonna be ready in a few minutes, I think. I came to the market in the meanwhile so I could get other stuff. I’ll be back soon!” _

Ryuuji’s shoulders jumped at the volume and he grabbed the phone to turn it down. “Alright. See ya, Okumura.”

_ “You know…” _ Rin said over the line.  _ “You could just call me Rin if you want. It’s been months, you know. I think you could consider us friends, wouldn’t you?” _

Ryuuji almost did a double-take, being pretty much half asleep. He put the phone back onto his shoulder and raised it to hold it in between it and his ear again. “Really?”

_ “Yeah.” _

“Well… you can call me Ryuuji then. That is, if you wanna,” he said, grabbing the spoon and stirring the tea to distract himself, face feeling warm.  _ Why is my face warm? _

_ “Oh!” _ Rin responded, unexpectedly. Ryuuji heard a static-y cough.  _ “Alright, then! See ya, Ryuuji!” _

Ryuuji didn’t know why he felt his face get warmer then, or when he said goodbye in turn. “See ya, Rin.” He let go of the spoon and took his phone back in his hand to hang up, but heard the noise meaning that Rin himself had already. He put it into his pocket again and took a sip of the cold tea, his thoughts swirling, face only reddening more when they did.

What was  _ up _ with him today?

 

* * *

 

So the pizza had started to take longer than Rin thought it would.

He couldn’t blame the employee, they were working a shift by themselves at night and it was in the middle of a snowstorm. The lights had been flickering a few times before the power in the small shop finally went out for a few seconds. It’d been over half an hour when it happened and the worker yelled out from the kitchen “Pizza’s gonna be another 10 minutes, sorry ‘bout that.”

Rin was internally freaking out. He promised Sugur-  _ Ryuuji _ he would take care of him and here he was, doing the exact opposite of that. Over some stupid pizza that was probably a bad idea in the first place. It was taking twice the amount of time he thought it would and he couldn’t do anything about it.

He sighed.

_ Man, how did I get this stranded getting pizza? _

 

* * *

 

Rin slowly opens the door to the old boys’ dormitory. It creaks as he does, and he walks in and closes it shut. He walks upstairs to the cafeteria and puts the box of pizza down on the table closest to the entrance, along with the couple of plastic grocery bags full of Sukiyaki ingredients. He hears another door opening from down the hallway and the wooden floorboards creaking as the sound of footsteps gets closer. It’s Ryuuji, and he’s rubbing his eye, still looking half asleep.

“Oi, Ryuuji,” he says softly with a small smile as he hangs his jacket on the chair. “How’s your head?”

“Slightly better,” Ryuuji murmurs back.

“That’s good! Hey, pizza’s here, you want some?” Rin continues, still whispering.

“Yeah, sure.”

Rin goes to get paper plates from the kitchen as Ryuuji sits down, and when they both have food on their plates they mutter ‘Itadakimasu’ in tandem and begin eating. Ryuuji’s still sleepy as he indulges into the pizza. It’s silent while they eat, a comfortable type. Until Rin breaks it.

“Sorry it took so long for me to get back,” he says. He felt his face reddening and he was glad there was no light. “The lights went out at the pizza shop, too, and there was only one employee there. I think it took a while for them to start the oven back on.”

“‘S alright,” Ryuuji said and swallowed the bite of pizza he had in his mouth. “I don’t mind. I’ve only really been sleeping the whole time.”

The half-demon picked a piece of sausage off his pizza slice and popped it into his mouth, his other arm resting on the table, chin in hand. “Still, I wish I could make it up to you somehow.” Ryuuji could see that his tail had flopped down next to him out of the corner of his eye.

“You don’t have to make it up to me. You already bought this pizza and from what I can tell, you’re planning to make Sukiyaki. If anything,  _ I’m _ the one that needs to make it up to  _ you _ .”

“Nonono, it’s fine! We talked about this earlier. You always take care of everybody else and yourself so much, you need  _ someone else _ to take care of you for once. When I think of it, actually, it’s like this is my payback.”

The monk sighed and looked to the side. He paused a little before saying, “How about I take you out to eat something tomorrow? I’ll pay.”

Rin pouted. “Mmmmfine.”

As they finished eating the comfortable silence stayed. Rin grabs the paper plates and throws them away, and puts the pizza on the kitchen island, along with the plastic grocery bags. Ryuuji yawns as he stands up.

“Still tired?” Rin asks.

Ryuuji rubs his eyes. “Yeah, I should probably get back to my dorm.”

“You can sleep here, you know. I’ll text Koneko for you. It’s late, and cold, anyway.”

“…Thanks,” he says lowly.

Ryuuji walks past the room, heading to the next one over and Rin speaks up. “Where’re you going?”

The brunet blinks. “Another room?”

Rin chuckles. “You can sleep in my bed since you already were. I’ll be up for a while, anyway.”

“You sure?” Ryuuji asks hesitantly.

“Yeah, I don’t mind.”

 

* * *

 

Rin originally sat in the cafeteria, scrolling through his phone, waiting for the lights to come back on so he could make breakfast for tomorrow, but the tiredness had taken over. After he fell asleep for a second and hit his head on the table he decided to get up and go to bed. Then he remembered Ryuuji was sleeping in his bed.

Not knowing why, he went to his room anyway, opening the door slowly to see that Ryuuji wasn’t even covered up with a blanket. Rin made a small ‘tch’ noise and snatched the blanket from Yukio’s bed across the room and threw it over Ryuuji. He toed his shoes off and left them beside the door, which he closed.

Still not knowing why, he sat at the end of the bed opposite of Ryuuji’s head, laying his back against the wall. He didn’t plan to stay there but he looked at Ryuuji’s face and noticed that the usual scowl on his face was gone, almost as if somebody had done something to make him stop looking so… angry.

Then Rin realized it’d been gone the whole time he’d been here.

His train of thought cut off as he dozed off sitting there on the bed, next to Ryuuji.

 

* * *

 

Rin woke back up around an hour later and only god knows how he ended up  _ cuddling _ with his friend.

_ Friend? _

No, he wasn’t gonna think of that right now.

He noticed that there was light coming from under the door and wondered when it came back on. Fuck it, Yukio would turn it off when he got back from whatever mission he was on.

He lay there for a while, not moving, and he realized a few things at a time. Despite their height difference, Ryuuji’s head was in the crook of  _ his _ neck. His tail was wrapped around Ryuuji’s leg, which was tangled in between Rin’s. The taller teen’s arms were wrapped around the shorter’s neck, while the latter’s were wrapped around the former’s waist.

_ How did it get to this? _  
_ Who cares, _ were Rin’s last thoughts as he felt himself dozing off again.

**Author's Note:**

> this is all based off personal experiences. i live near chicago so like the cold recently... getting stranded for 40 minutes for pizza... the migraines... the orange but it only happened AFTER i wrote that part... being snowed in... well everything besides the "being taken care of by your possible crush" and cuddling, sadly  
> anyway since bon canonically gets migraines i think about it all the time as another punk boy who also gets migraines
> 
> my tumblr is [sugurobonryuuji](https://sugurobonryuuji.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
